Ravi Chandran
Amidst surging investor interest in the Singapore property market, Bluenest’s tech-based model streamlines the entire purchasing and selling process for consumers.
With Bluenest, seamlessness and transparency will soon become the new hallmarks of property transactions for savvy consumers. Bluenest is Singapore’s first tech-based real estate agency. Our full-service local consultants use the latest technologies to help you sell smarter and faster. We are your trusted advisor, all the time.
Backed by Rocket Internet, tech-based real estate agency Bluenest eliminates the inefficiencies currently present in the purchasing and selling process.
“Property agents these days are like entrepreneurs, managing the entire customer journey themselves from lead sourcing to paperwork at varied commission rates,” says Bluenest founder Jeff Lim.
However, these one-man shows typically mean a long, time-consuming process for both agents and consumers. Real estate transactions can last around 6 months from start to finish, covering everything from house viewings to legal processes.
Bluenest’s A.I. and data-based platform closes the loop between buyers and sellers and aims to cut in half the average time it takes to transact a property.
The technology available to its agents also allows the firm to deliver greater cost savings to end-users. For instance, Bluenest charges only 1% in commissions for premium brokerage services compared to the standard market rate of 2%.
Like the owner-listing platforms that have grown in popularity in recent years, Bluenest’s goal is to enhance the transacting experience for consumers.
However, the company’s competitive edge lies in the advisory services that its agent pool offers. Using tech to automate the repetitive processes involved in the sale, Bluenest agents are better able to focus on advisory and can deliver a higher-than-average closing rate for their clients.
“Digital marketing is our strength,” Lim notes. “We market properties as an agency rather than as lone individuals.” This integrated approach enables them to help homeowners sell their properties at higher prices and in a shorter time frame.
The Bluenest platform is also designed to give sellers full access to the relevant data and incoming offers, affording them greater control over their transactions. That way, clients need not worry about under-the-table dealings by shady agents, as with the recent case of agent fraud in Singapore.
If the results are any indication, Bluenest’s approach of leveraging technology to change the real estate landscape seems to be working so far. The company closed its first deal in less than a week and has gained good traction in the island-state since its launch in September this year.
Mr Paul Ho, chief mortgage officer at iCompareLoan, said, “the real estate industry is rapidly changing, and customers expect better experiences and turn-around-time when they purchase a property. This multi-million dollar partnership will further drive innovation for the benefit of customers.”
In keeping up with proptech revolution that is exploding everywhere, property agents “must upgrade or die”, said Mr Ho. He noted that many property agencies struggle to keep up with all the regulatory changes in the industry, as well as the changing financial calculations for acquiring a property. He urged property agents to master the basics in property financing, refinancing, taxation and CPF.
Mr Ho said that iCompareLoan.com runs a full 2 – 3 days course on how property agents can produce such reports for their customers. He added that the trademarked course teaches Property Agents how to generate complicated Financial calculations using – Home Loan Report (TM) – in 3 mins flat. This helps Property agents to close deals faster and serve customers more professionally.
Proptech is technology and real estate coming together to propel the real estate industry forward. The proptech ecosystem is flourishing now in many parts of the world, thanks in large part to ample venture capital, community efforts in local tech hubs, and an increasing realisation that there is a real need for innovation in the sector.
Proptech will have an impact on traditional business operating models. Whether this impact turns out to be positive or negative depends largely on how real estate players will use them to their advantage. These technologies are however still a long way away from replacing human judgment, touch, and ability to react to dynamic changes, which are all critical to the decision-making process.
A recent research report by Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) said, “proptech will be used to drive tenant experience. A smart building can drive operational performance but it can also enhance human experience. Without tenants, a building as an asset will perform poorly, regardless of how operationally efficient it may be, or the amount of capital growth targeted. This change is already being recognised, with tenant experience a top-three driver. As operational efficiency increasingly comes under control, we expect the next wave of proptech to focus on satisfying the future needs of the occupier, wherever and however they choose to work.”
C&W added that the overarching opportunity in proptech adoption is to generate data-driven reporting more quickly, which in turn will facilitate more insightful decision making. Doing this will link the building to the corporate occupier and ultimately to the asset’s financial performance in a clearer, more systematic way.
“Surprisingly, respondents told us there is comparatively little concern around security, privacy or the complexity of the task at hand. Undoubtedly data encryption and storage have become increasingly secure, though data breaches remain a regular part of the media cycle.
“Lesser concerns on security risk may result from the perceived lack of value in the data to potential hackers. However, we argue the focus should be on securing access to a building’s management system rather than the actual data it logs.”
